PT-1 "The Means of Reconciliation" (Col. 1:20b-22a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/31/2017 10:55 PM

My Worship Time                                                    Focus:  PT -1 “The Means of Reconciliation”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 1:20b, 22a

            Message of the verses:  “having made peace through the blood of His cross…He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death.”

            I may have mentioned this before and may not have mentioned it before, anyway when I was a rather young believer the first Pastor that I had talked about verse twenty and said that it is the only verse in the entire Bible that has both peace and blood in it.  Now according to John MacArthur “blood speaks metaphorically of His atonement.  It connects Christ’s death with the Old Testament sacrificial system (cf. 1 Pet. 1:18-19). ‘18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.’  It is also a term that graphically notes violent, blood-shedding death the final sacrificial Lamb would suffer.”  Let us look at Hebrews 13:11-12 “11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.”

            As we compare the death of Jesus with the death of the Old Testament animal sacrifices we know that the OT sacrifices would bleed to death, but that is not the case with our Lord as we can see from John 10:17-18,

            “17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."”

            I know that I have told this story in earlier SD’s but it is worth telling again.  The very first time that we hear Jesus speak through the pages of Scripture comes from the gospel of Luke and this happens when Jesus is left behind after a Passover celebration in Jerusalem.  Mary and Joseph though He was with someone else and did not discover He was “lost” from their family until the caravan they were traveling in was gone from Jerusalem a couple of days.  They hurried back to Jerusalem and finally found Him in the temple talking to some of the spiritual leaders of Israel.  They were amazed that someone 12 years old knew so much.  His mother was upset because they looked long and hard for Him.  He said to his mom “Didn’t you know that I would be about My Father’s business.”  The last thing that we hear Jesus say is “it is finished.”  The business of the Father that He sent Him to do was finished, which was the reconciliation of those who would believe in Him for their salvation.  The Greek word for “it is finished” means “paid in full,” and that is exactly what Jesus did through His death on the cross, pay in full the payment that was required for sin. 

            Now in our next SD from this section we will look more at the blood of Christ.

1/31/2017 11:15 PM